5 Reasons Why Health Information Technology Needs an Apple Inc.

Healthcare workers throughout the country
daily face the growing pains of the transition from paper charts to
electronic medical systems. Not only are there frustrations within each
system, every hospital seems to have selected a different EMR. When I
was a medical student at UCSD, I was exposed to four separate EMR’s (Epic,
PCIS, CPRS, Centricity) during my rotations at various San Diego
hospitals.

In this Wild West era of electronic health systems,
here are 5 reasons how the health care field could benefit if a company
followed Apple’s paradigm:

1. Apple
Solidifies Emerging Markets

The iPod was not the first MP3 player
on the market, and it wasn’t the last. The iPhone wasn’t the first
smart phone, and it wasn’t the last. The iPad is not the first
touch-screen tablet computer, and it won’t be the last. However, each
of those 3 devices took niche and naive markets, made them mainstream
and appealing to the general consumer, and became the standard in each
market.

In this time of the dawning of electronic medical record
systems, there are plenty of systems that exist, some more successful
than others, but not one that has emerged as the de facto standard.
Each system looks and handles vastly different than the next, and many
take a good deal of training to learn. This is an ideal
field for a company to design a novel approach that “just makes sense” –
as Apple has done.

2. Apple Specializes in Intuitive and Friendly
User Interfaces

The iPod had the click wheel to navigate
thousands of songs, and the iPhone incorporated the touch screen
keyboard into a new OS designed from the ground-up for touch
interaction. These designs are intuitive and user-friendly. One of the
primary difficulties with adopting EMR’s is non-tech savvy physicians
are hesitant to shift their practice habits. Furthermore, current EMR’s
continue to frustrate users with complex and confusing user interfaces.
A fresh and intuitive Apple-esque design for managing health records
and clinical encounters could appeal to users of all expertise. You
don’t have to reinvent the wheel, rather, look at existing interfaces
that are aesthetically appealing and go from there.

3. Apple Makes
Hardware and Software

Apple designs two operating systems (iOS
and Mac OSX), which power the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Macbooks, Mac Pro’s,
iMac, and Mac Mini. This impressive arsenal of handheld devices,
notebooks, and small and large desktops cover nearly every possible use
of hospital: powerful Mac Pro desktop machines for radiologists, iMac’s
for nursing stations, Macbook’s-on-wheels for rounding medical teams,
and iPod Touches for nurses and doctors.

There are two primary
advantages to being involved in both hardware and software. The first
benefit is increased support for older systems and less opportunity for
unforeseen bugs and incompatibility glitches, as there are only a
limited number of configurations to support. The other primary
advantage is the ability to custom-design hardware and/or software
specific for the needs of medical professionals.

For example, the
previously mentioned iPod Touch could be equipped with
barcode scanners for nurses to help log their medication
administrations. It’s often ironic when electronic health record systems
don’t take into account the user interfaces they are designed for.

In
the evolving world of medicine, where the transition to mobile is
happening quickly, the disconnect between software and hardware could
not be more apparent. While it might seem impractical for a vendor to
produce the hardware, a closer partnership between vendor and hardware
is necessary, yet rarely occurs.

4. Apple Specializes in
Uniformity and Simplicity

Apple’s critics accuse the company of
sacrificing customizability and certain higher-level functionality in
exchange for uniformity and simplicity. In this way, such people use
the condescending term “walled garden” to describe Apple products
because they excel beautifully in what they do well, but with a degree
of limitations.

Whether or not you agree with this, such a “walled
garden” approach is surprisingly appropriate in the healthcare
industry. Electronic medical records are, by definition, very tightly
controlled and limited in terms of customizability as they must
accommodate employees of various technological expertise throughout an
entire healthcare system and protect the privacy of patient data.

5.
Maybe Apple itself should jump into health information technology

EMR’s
and medical computing is a billion dollar industry. For any
corporation, the potential profit must be massive in order for it to
fund the research and development required to produce a highly-polished
product. Hot off the heels of the success of the iDevices, Apple’s
profits are at an all-time high, and experts postulate whether the
company can continue its exponential rise.

In response, Apple has
fixed its sights on expanding its market from the consumer to the
business world, with increased focus on security, stability, and
allowing companies to produce their own in-house apps. Healthcare is a
billion dollar industry, and making a significant entry into the EMR
field could prove to be immensely profitable, even when compared with
Apple’s already staggering success.

Conclusion

The thought
of an “Apple designed” EMR and computer setup is incredibly intriguing.
Next time you walk into your local Apple store, observe the
well-designed workflow of greeters, roaming salespeople with modified
credit-card swiping iPod touches, “geniuses” taking care of and fixing
pc’s through walk-in and scheduled appointments, and educators leading
training sessions.

Does it require much imagination to visualize a
similar “Apple-designed” medical workflow with corresponding software
and technology?

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